8th, 6th, 4th, and FIRST!

People who know me best know that I am not a fan of school starting.  It just means that summer is over and my kids leave me and we have to wake up early and have a schedule and keep track of a million papers/dates, and then do homework and many various projects.  Ugh!

Usually I am somewhat prepared for this.  But this year it snuck up on me from behind and it hit me HARD!  In the weeks leading up to the big day I was very busy with the start-up of our new business (Aerie*) among other things.  Traditionally I plan a fancy "back to school" night for the kids where I cook a favorite dinner and decorate and and have a fashion show and we get all pumped up.

This year it didn't happen.

School started on a Tuesday so we settled for FHE with a steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  Lone Peak football had a big kick-off party as well with a scrimmage so that was fun too.  And of course, because I was so unprepared, I was taking the boys to get their hair-cut at 8:55 pm, just before they put up the CLOSED sign.  There was no way I was going to let them start school with crusty hair-dos.

Texas Roadhouse

Well, ready or not, the morning came and here they are, so cute and excited for their first day of school:

Notice Sambo is in a white polo and navy shorts. That's because he is going to a new charter school for 6th grade.  Surprisingly, he is not too bugged about wearing uniforms.  That was until he had to wear a white shirt and tie on Monday.  Every Monday.  I was nervous for him, starting a new school - but when he got home the only complaint he had about his first day was "there aren't very many cute girls there."  So I figure if that's the worst thing, then it's going to be ok :)  

First day at Mountainville Academy

Mrs. Burnside's class

Mrs. Worlton

BS and I got the kids dropped off (because we do a lot of being together these days thanks to Aerie*) and I came home and started doing the dishes.  And then it hit me and I started to cry. And then I started bawling. The reality of it all came at me so hard and so sudden...the reality that we are officially on to the next phase of life.  The phase where there are no more littles at home.  No more buddies to play/eat/run errands with. Call me weird but I like having kiddos with me at home.  I've been doing it for 13 years and now here I am.  And I missed Quincy already. I don't want her to be so grown up. Any of my kids.  Then BS came downstairs and saw me crying and then we decided that we were at a huge milestone and that we needed to celebrate!  

So we went to the movies!  Here we are, the only people in the theatre at 12:15 in the afternoon, with our feet on the chairs and a huge bucket of buttered popcorn and a soda from the fancy soda machine.

It helped me feel better.  

As I write this, school has been going now for 7 days.  I have yet to have some time to myself at home while the kids are at school (again thanks to Aerie*).  So yes, I am still bummin about them being gone.  But I'm sure once I get a taste of it, I will like this new phase more and more.

The kids and friends after their first day of school. They all had a great day!  Except for Chops.  Just when he thought things couldn't get worse than the cone of shame, he had to go all day without the kids around and he got lonely :(

Just for fun, I took some pics the next day of the 2 littles walking to school together.  

So. dang. cute.  I LOVE that they can walk and ride their bikes together.  And I can go with them too!  And Chops!  I feel really lucky that each of my kids are excited for school to start and not sad, nervous, or whiny about it :)

 

Still have tons to blog about from summer, but wanted to get school started.

*Information about Aerie coming.  Stay tuned.  

Lagoon

This is the first year in a long time that we haven't had season passes to Lagoon.  But it wasn't on purpose...only because we kept forgetting to buy them and waited too long.  It was July before we even had a chance to go to Lagoon so we decided not to get them.  We have still managed to go twice (thanks to Bounce back passes), but we really miss being able to go whenever we want for a few hours on the summer evenings.  We love Lagoon! 

The first time we were lucky to go with cousins Kade, Lucy, Sadie, Norah, and Alex.  Aunt Casey was in town for the 4th of July.  Millie didn't get to go because she was in St. George for her Student council retreat.  The kids had a fantastic day and even though it was hot...we went on plenty of wet rides to cool us off!  But the best part of the day was when Quincy realized she was FINALLY tall enough to ride all of the big rides!  Yep, 46 inches exactly!

And she didn't waste time being too scared to ride them.  We went on many big rides together  like Spyder, Wild Mouse, the big swings, the White roller coaster, and sitting on the back row of the Tidal Wave.  So brave!  But she did want more time to think about riding Wicked and The Colossus and "ride it next time."  Which is what she did when she and the boys went back to Lagoon the next week, but this time with BS. She rode Wicked and Colossus, along with any and all rides she could!  She couldn't get enough of it!  BS took some really cute videos of her expressions during the rides.

It's always fun to be with cousins!  We had a great day and closed the place down!

Q and Sadie

Kade and Lucy

 

Norah and Casey

 

For Will, Lagoon isn't complete without a game of Lucky Ducks.  This time he scored a fishy that he gave to Q

We look forward to going back in October for Frightmares!!!! 

Clarks

For one weekend in July, the entire Clark family {minus Dave} was all together for the 4th.  This is quite a feat!  Here, we are at a church after cousin Audree's baptism.  Our family is on the right side.  It was a great moment.........until Sambo and Wilbur were messing around and knocked over Ashlee's mom.  Such boneheads!  Yikes!  It was one of those sad but funny moments.

I love this family so much!

Manti

In June, the youth group in our ward took a trip to Manti.  We got to visit the beautiful temple, provide a service project, and then watch the famous pageant.  

The weather was gorgeous and we were with a super fun group of youth and leaders. After the temple, we met up at the park for some snacks and then some weed pulling.  The cute old couple was so grateful and I know Millie and the other kids felt so good knowing they were part of that.

Then we ate dinner, the "famous Manti BBQ turkey dinner." I must say it was delicious!

Then BS and the kiddos met up with us.  He drove them down in our car because we were going to go straight to Lake Powell from Manti (post on that trip later). 

I was already feeling so blessed to be in an awesome ward with awesome people, going to the temple, and then I felt even happier when I saw my cute family coming to join us.  Here we are waiting for the pageant to start:

 I'm a little ashamed to say that I have never been to the Manti pageant before (well, my Mom says I went when I was little but I don't remember it at all). We really don't live that far away.  

But BS and I decided that the kids were perfect ages for the pageant.  Old enough to sit still and understand it, but not so old that they think it is boring ;)

We all really enjoyed it!

When the pageant ended, we said our goodbyes and the 6 Clarks were off to Lake Powell round 2!  We drove to Green River and stopped at a budget motel for a few hours of sleep.

*So glad we did this!!!*

Pointe

Look who got new pointe shoes?  When I was dancing we called them "toe shoes."  She thinks that is so weird!  I am so proud of her hard work and look forward to seeing her dance around in these shoes.